Haitian man on death
row
'Self-defense is not
a crime'
By
G. Dunkel
Borgela
Philistin was tired and in a hurry to get home on June 16, 1993, so he took a
jitney cab. But he never made it
home.
A
few blocks from his house, two Philadelphia cops stopped the cab. A shouting
match broke out. One cop reached through the window and punched Philistin. The
cop smashed him in the mouth with a flashlight, then pulled him through the
window.
A
big brawl followed, with the two cops and Philistin on the ground. One cop was
trying to grab Philistin's hands. The other drew his gun. In the struggle, the
cop dropped his gun, Philistin picked it up, and in his words to the cops during
his interrogation, "I fired shots towards the ground so I could run. I didn't
aim at them; one of the officers was hit. I saw the blood. I panicked and
started
running."
Without
an effective lawyer to present a heat-of-passion defense, without consular
notification, this 19-year-old Haitian citizen, who was a student and part-time
worker here, was convicted of premeditated, first-degree murder of a cop named
Robert Hayes and aggravated assault on another cop, John Marynowitz, who is
paralyzed. Given the racism of the Philadelphia court system, these charges drew
a death
penalty.
Philistin
wound up on the same death row as journalist and former Black Panther Mumia
Abu-Jamal. He told Abu-Jamal, "I came from a country where you respect
authority, but was I just supposed to let them beat me, shoot me? I thought they
were going to kill me."
Abu-Jamal
adds, "Can anyone really say that such a fear isn't
justified?"
Ray
Laforest, a labor union militant and member of the Haitian Coalition for
Justice, said: "The movement to free Mumia must defend the right of self-defense
and other victims of this racist justice system. What happened to Philistin
could happen to any of us--look at Patrick Dorismond and Abner Louima. Haitians
are victims of this racist justice system, just like other Blacks in this
country."
Abu-Jamal
has asked a delegation of French parliamentarians who are scheduled to visit him
the first week of September to visit Philistin if they can get permission from
Pennsylvania prison
authorities.
Johnnie
Stevens, a leader of Millions for Mumia/International Action Center, told
Workers World, "It is absolutely important to broaden the struggle to obtain a
new trial for Mumia, to show that the racist death penalty is used against any
person of color who dares to defend themselves, not just Mumia."
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